Ask UA Insider: Star Alliance Announcements & Discussions
 

Hi Everyone, well it’s finally official… Continental is now a Star Alliance member! This marks an unprecedented move from one major alliance to another, and as you might imagine, the amount of preparations that has led us up to this point has been extraordinary. Yes, there’s going to be some bumps as we complete our transition, and we appreciate your patience while we cement everything in place. As usual, we will look to our feedback channels as issues pop up (especially here on FlyerTalk), and will do our best to correct them quickly.

For those of you who want to keep up on today’s festivities, be sure to follow us on Twitter. Information about our Star Alliance joining ceremony webcast and other good stuff will be tweeted throughout the day.

Now, for the stuff we couldn't talk much about... until now. I’ll do my best to touch on the big hits. Here goes…
That's it for now. Thanks for your patience while we complete this transition, and we hope you’ll enjoy this new chapter in Continental’s history. And yes, there’s still more to come...

Thanks Scott ^

Thank you, Scott!

:-:

Thanks for staying up for us FTers, Scott
Now go home and get an hour or two of shut-eye

Thanks!

Thanks, Scott!

I'm excited! Like a child on Christmas morning!

Nice job Scott ^

Scott,

The site says worldwide lounge access for Star Gold. I assume that needs to be changed. Will domestic restriction be limited to CO/UA/US lounges modeled on the UA/US deal? I.E. Will we be able to access other partner lounges on domestic trips?

mucho thanks.

Fantastic!
Thanks Scott!

Yes! This is exciting...now just need to figure out the UA upgrades and E+ stuff and we are set!

As always, we appreciate the open line of communication you provide between us and CO. Thank you for this update and for all of your hard work over the last several months to facilitate this transition. Also, happy (belated) birthday!

Awesome! Thanks Scott.

Thanks Scott this is Awesome!!

Having extra availability on First class for Platinum rocks. BTW I am on the phone right now trying to book 2 true FIRST (feels good to say that with CO) class tickets to Israel via lufthansa. Agent is still trying to figure out how to book it :)

Very exciting, Thanks Scott!!

Can't wait to take advantage of *Gold benefits^

As many have already said, Thanks so much for the information!

But so far only seeing AC and VS on reward travel to LHR way out, and they are only showing Y awards.

Also, looking out into may seeing only UA to SYD, all Y.

What about all the other *A partners, nothing on LH at all.

Booking classes are still not showing up according to agents.

I feel Twitterific about the news!! ;)

Its a race I want to have the first *A booking (at least on Lufthansa)!! LOL will my agent figure it out before your agent?

Nice to see 500 mile minimum earnings on United. I was counting on that to make Gold this year.

Thanks for all the info and all your (and your fellow employees') hard work!

I hung up they could not even see what I was asking for, if I don't get this done tonight my GF may break up with me tomorrow :eek:

Turkey... is it Europe or Middle East? Reason I ask is that the reward charts for the two areas are very different, yet this country is listed in both sections.

I'm being told by the agent I just spoke with that corporate is instant messaging the agents to advise customers to 'wait 24 hours' for award bookings--that the booking classes are not loaded.

He seemed frustrated that they didn't have their s**t together when they did the rollout--but, then again, didn't we all kinda expect this?

If anyone gets through the red tape tonight, please let us know.

Sounds like its customers choice whichever is the smaller amount of miles you should be able to get it for that.

WAHOO!!!
 

Cheers Scott to you and everyone behind the scenes! This is going to be very exciting and I can't wait!!!!!

No Bonus Miles on Partners to Asia SUCKS BIGTIME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
This is B%LL SH%T!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Our first angry customer of the night...and now the fun begins!

LOL Simmer down...

Sorry guys, I call it like I see it:D;) I'll probably get over it.

Kudos to CO for being so prompt and timely with this alliance change! I'm impressed.

On the other hand, the Star Ailliance main homepage is still without CO in sight...

Hi Everyone, as you've found, we're still loading reward availability. Bear with us, it may be several hours before bookings can be made over the phone. Continental.com reward bookings, on the other hand, are churning through and the first Star Alliance reward tickets are being issued as I type.


Hi kylemore, as benolaa mentioned, the lower reward amount between the two regions will apply. Same goes for Egypt, which is in both the Northern Africa and Middle East regions.

Good stuff--thanks for the info.

Could I politely suggest CO itself open more routes to Asia in this brave new world. :D

Patience. Must get 787s first. :D

All I can say is wow! This is such a positive step forward for CO passengers. I'm happy.

You're actually staying up to answer our questions??? Wow, this is dedication!
Scott, for those of us flying through IAH today, should we keep our eyes peeled for some kind of promo? A wild goose chase, maybe? :p

If I book a ticket now for the end of November and then in early November Swiss becomes available for the return can I keep the outbound with Lufthansa without cancelling the ticket (loosing the space) and just replace the return as it will be the same mileage from ord-tlv via zrh instead of fra.

So two questions here about the PC member and *A Gold lounge access.

1. If one has both credentials will one be able to get two people in?

2. The way I read the PC Members access to UA and US lounges is that one only needs to show card and ID similiar to the DL/NWA arrangement, is this correct? Ok, I reread what Scott wrote as compared to the website and I think this is a YES

Scott,
Thanks again for announcing this and staying up with us junkies tonight!!

HELP about to book but they are coming back with a tax of $333 per ticket. Something is clearly wrong. They claim a YQ (fuel) surcharge is to be charged even though United does not charge it. This would be a very very terrible devaluation. There is a note on Oct 8 that it would not be charged. On Oct 22nd bulletin claimed charge on all itineraries.

United?